ARSENE WENGER launched a furious rant as Arsenal lost again and skipper Cesc Fabregas was injured.

Arsenal boss Wenger has been left sweating on a place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League after a 2-0 defeat in Braga. But he was seething at Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai and his goalline official for failing to give a penalty when Carlos Vela was tripped in the box.

He also accused Braga of thuggery and causing a medial knee ligament injury to Emmanuel Eboue which will keep him out for weeks.

“What is the fifth official doing if he can’t see that?” Wenger said of Alberto Rodriguez’s challenge on substitute Vela in the 78th minute. “It’s an absolutely useless system. It is difficult to understand how we did not get a penalty.

“The
five referees is not an answer to the problem. The turning point was
the penalty. I still cannot understand how Vela got a yellow card. It
remains a complete mystery. The referee had some surprising decisions.

Eboue has been kicked off the park without any punishment and we have been denied a certain penalty

Wenger fumed at refereeing decisions

“It is a disappointing result because we played a team who camped in their own half and we’ve somehow lost.

“Eboue
has been kicked off the park without any punishment and we have been
denied a certain penalty. It was a difficult game against a team who
used all the tricks to slow the game down.”

Wenger
will now be without skipper Fabregas, who injured the opposite
hamstring to the one which has been troubling him for months.

“It’s
hard to say for how long he’ll be out,” said Wenger. “He’ll definitely
miss the weekend game at Aston Villa. It looks like a classic hamstring
and it could be three weeks.”

Arsenal managed
just one shot on target, a first-half free-kick by Fabregas. Two late
goals from Brazilian striker Matheus handed the Gunners a second
successive Champions League defeat and left them with a real threat of
not qualifying for the knock-out stage under Wenger for the first time.

Defender Johan Djourou admitted Arsenal must “wake up”.

He said: “It’s crazy. We had the game under control but for two counter-attacks and silly mistakes.

“We can be disappointed because we should have won the game easily. It’s very hard to take.

“A point would have qualified us so it’s a shame to concede goals like that. It was a wake-up call.”